WHEREAS, the National Indian Health Board (NIHB), established in 1972, serves all federally recognized American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Tribal governments by advocating for the improvement of health care delivery to AI/ANs, as well as upholding the Federal government’s trust responsibility to AI/AN Tribal governments; and

WHEREAS, the NIHB serves all federally-recognized Tribes, constituting an immensely diverse service population with wide-ranging perspectives, opinions, and values; and

WHEREAS, the governing body of the NIHB is its Board of Directors, comprised of a representative elected from the Tribes in each Indian Health Service Area; and

WHEREAS, the NIHB is intimately aware of the harms suffered to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual harms suffered among members of AI/AN communities, in the past and ongoing, as a direct result of the past federal boarding school policy, and the role those harms continue to play in the health of AI/AN people; and